Sam Neill’s home, property goes on auction block

One month after he entered a federal prison in Georgia for tax fraud, disbarred Hendersonville attorney Sam Neill faces the loss of his home and property on Lake Summit.

By Nathaniel AxtellTimes-News Staff Writer

One month after he entered a federal prison in Georgia for tax fraud, disbarred Hendersonville attorney Sam Neill faces the loss of his home and property on Lake Summit. An Asheville attorney will auction off Neill’s 5,000-square-foot home and 1.59 acres of property at 200 Camp Windy Wood Road in Zirconia to the highest bidder at 10 a.m. Friday on the steps of the Henderson County Courthouse. On June 19, a Superior Court clerk found Neill, 63, had defaulted on a $1.69 million note with Mountain 1st Bank secured by a deed of trust and ordered the foreclosure sale of three separate tracts that make up Neill’s home property overlooking the lake.County tax records indicate Neill’s home is assessed at $418,000 and the land, including a lakeside strip with boathouse, is worth $402,500. However, Paul Taylor Construction has a $149,059 lien against those assets, according to court records.Another, adjoining .81-acre parcel on North Lake Summit Road owned by ZIR Tuxedo Holding Company, a limited liability corporation listing Neill as its sole agent, will go up for auction at noon Thursday on the courthouse steps. A Superior Court clerk found June 14 that Neill and his wife, Nancy Hayes, defaulted on a deed of trust associated with that tract, which has an assessed value of $310,600, and authorized its sale at auction. A Tryon attorney acting as substitute trustee will take the highest bid Thursday.In April, a U.S. District Court judge sentenced Neill to three years in prison for federal tax fraud. Neill was later sentenced to six to eight years in state prison for embezzling close to $2.5 million from clients between 2000 and 2010, including roughly $884,000 from a charitable trust.He began serving his federal prison sentence June 10 in a medium-security facility in Jesup, Ga.Before his sentencing, in an attempt at making restitution, Neill signed over promissory notes on his Lake Summit property and other real estate. It’s unknown whether the foreclosure sale will prevent some restitution from occurring as promised, attorneys said Tuesday.Attorney Jeffrey Stahl, the substitute trustee who will auction off Neill’s home and property Friday, said Mountain 1st’s 2010 deed of trust with the Neills would take priority over any other liens or encumbrances on the property under state law unless they preceded the mortgage.“Anything that was recorded before that will survive the foreclosure,” Stahl said. “Anything recorded after that would not. If a deed of trust (associated with restitution) was recorded after Oct. 1, 2010, then this foreclosure would wipe that deed of trust out.”Court records show Neill amended the deed of trust on most of his home property in May 2012, dropping his wife’s name from ownership. In a forbearance agreement signed the same day, Neill agreed he still owed Mountain 1st $1.68 million, plus accrued interest of $76,779 and $3,250 in late charges. The sale of Neill’s home and property won’t affect at least two organizations whose funding was plundered by his embezzlement. Neill confessed to stealing $844,517 from the Barry Clemo Charitable Remainder Trust, funds that were intended for the Community Foundation of Henderson County and Four Seasons hospice.Including interest accrued in the years since, Neill now owes the Clemo trust over $1 million, said Community Foundation President McCray Benson. Neill pledged to make restitution by selling off a 7-acre piece of property he and his brother, Roy, own near the intersection of South Grove Street and Old Spartanburg Highway, the old Joy Drive-In tract.“We think it’s still a viable possibility to fulfill Mr. Clemo’s charitable desires at some point,” Benson said. “But we’re going on four years since he died and that part is sad.”“We’re hopeful that the right buyer will come along and purchase it,” agreed Chris Comeaux, president of Four Seasons Compassion for Life. “But this has been playing out for a long time.”Reach Axtell at 828-694-7860 or than.axtell@blueridgenow.com.

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